We are pleased to share that Richard Jackson has selected Emily Schulten’s poem “Lesson in Vocabulary: Faith” for the 2024 Ralph Angel Poetry Prize.
Emily Schulten is the author of three books of poetry, including Easy Victims to the Charitable Deceptions of Nostalgia, winner of the 2023 White Pine Press Poetry Prize (September 2024), and The Way a Wound Becomes a Scar, a 2023 Eric Hofer Award Finalist. Her work appears in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, and Prairie Schooner, among others. Schulten is the Poet Laureate of Key West, where she is a professor of English and creative writing at The College of the Florida Keys.
“Lesson in Vocabulary: Faith” will be available as a limited-edition broadside designed by Ralph Angel Prize Resident Artist Talia Ryan. Check back for more information later this year.
This year’s finalists and long list are below. Thanks to all who submitted work and congratulations to Emily and the other poets recognized here.
Emily Schulten
Finalists
JR Cohen - “Loon Sonnet”
Jen Karetnick - “The Watchers”
Selena Cotte - “January, Wisconsin, distractions”
Long List
William Z. Landau - “For No One”
Kaz Sussman - “Skinny Dipping in the Creak of Old Bones”
Suzanne Richardson - “THE NIGHT I KNEW I LOVED YOU I DREAMED I WAS A SMALL HORSE THAT LIVED IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND”
Sasha Debevec-McKenney - “I NEVER GOT TO SEE DUNE 2 WITH JOHNNY”
Justin Lowe - “Buick LeSabre”
Francisca Matos - “My Neighbor”
Ralph Angel
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.
Ralph left behind an incredible body of work, but he also left a legacy of support, guidance, and inspiration for younger poets as well as his contemporaries. We’re happy that, with Mary Angel’s blessing and assistance, we can honor Ralph in a way that feels continuous with his life’s work: By recognizing, honoring, and encouraging the work of other poets.
More information about Ralph and his poetry is available at https://ralphangel.com/.
Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson is the author of 17 books of poetry including The Heart as Framed: New and Select Poems, Dispatches, Where The Wind Comes From and Broken Horizons, and 12 books of essays, interviews, translations, editions and anthologies. Winner of Guggenheim, Fulbright, NEA. NEH and Witter Bynner Fellowships and the order of Freedom from the President of Slovenia for his literary and humanitarian work during the Balkan wars, he has also edited 32 chapbooks from eastern European poets.ee Professor at Davidson College.
About the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
Foundlings Press introduced the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize in 2021, with the blessing of Mary Angel and assistance from generous friends. Held annually, this contest recognizes a single poem. The winning poet, selected by a guest judge, receives $250 and a limited-edition broadside publication of the winning poem.
We typically open for submissions each year in the spring and announce a winner in the summer. Check the News section of our site for updates.
Past winners and judges:
2023: Emma Aylor, “Moon Jar,” selected by Victoria Redel
2022: Emma Fuchs, “Sestina for Klein Blue,” selected by David St. John
2021: Margarita Serafimova, “The Biologists,” selected by Mary Ruefle